The video games industry seems to have suffered somewhat in America throughout January if analysts are to be believed. Once again games industry analysts have started up their predictions for US games consoles sales for the past month ahead of the official NDP figures on Thursday morning. Nintendo and Sony look like they will feel the biggest brunt thanks to lower than expected sales, while Microsoft continues to make gains thanks to great sales of the Xbox 360 and Kinect.
According to CVG, sales of the Xbox 360 hit 380,000 during January, meaning that not only were Microsoft on top of the pile for the month, they managed a large 14 percent increase over their previous January 2010 sales figures.
Nintendo felt the biggest percentage drop over last year’s figures, with their January 2011 sales reaching 320,000, down around 31 percent from the same period last year.
Sony also had a lackluster month with sales of 240,000 units, down by 13 percent from January 2010.
In the handheld market, the Nintendo DS sold around 350,000 units, showing another drop of 17% compared to the same time last year, while the Sony PSP carried on its poor performance with just 80,000 sold, a big drop of 20 percent from January 2010.
The drop in sales is being echoed around the world thanks to the poor economy, but things could pick up next month when Nintendo launch their long-awaited Nintendo 3DS, which allows users to play games in 3D without the need for special glasses. January is also well known as a low point for games software, with very few new releases seeing the light of day until February at the earliest.
The article goes on to suggest that without more price cuts, the sales of games consoles will continue to drop throughout the year, even if the Xbox 360 is still the one bucking the trend.